Optical fiber terminations commonly utilize standard connection interfaces, such as the “Little Connector” (LC) connector interface. Optical cables with two optical fibers may be terminated with a pair of co-located LC connectors, known as a Duplex LC optical cable.
Duplex LC optical cables may apply a crimp connection to secure the LC connectors to Kevlar yarns of the optical cable sheath, to improve a pull strength of the resulting connector to cable interconnection.
Fiber to the Antenna (FTTA) installations transmit data to a tower mounted transceiver, known as a Remote Radio Head (RRH) or Remote Radio Unit (RRU). A single hybrid cable may provide multiple power, signal and/or control cables for an FTTA installation.
FTTA systems enable supply of a factory terminated and sealed hybrid cable wire harness with multiple signal, control and/or power conductors broken out at the RRH/RRU end, each conductor already terminated with the desired connector interface to make the installation process faster, simpler, user friendly, compact and clean.
The typical LC connector and fiber cable interconnection remains a delicate assembly with low tensile strength that may be easily damaged. Also, the LC connector interface does not include environmental sealing to prevent fouling of the interconnection, for example where the interconnection is an external interconnection, such as the broken out optical conductors of a hybrid FTTA cable coupled to RRH/RRU equipment.
A typical optical cable or furcation tube arrangement includes an inner tube through which one or more optical fibers are passed, the tube provided with an aramid fiber and/or yarn sheath to provide a limited level of protection to the optical fibers. However, the fibers may still be damaged by exceeding a bend radius of the cable or crushing forces applied to the cable.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to provide an optical crimp connector, an optical crimp connector coupled to an armored optical cable and a method of manufacture that overcomes deficiencies in such prior art.